Trials of Light and Dark
by Super Microsoftt
Summary: A story of how BlueEyes and RedEyes grew up together. Now rated M for excessive cursing, just to be safe.
1. The Beginning

Disclaimer: Any similarities between this fanfiction and other fanfictions is completely coincidental.

Author's Note: This story is much unlike the TV show. There is no "Duel Monsters" card game, but instead the monsters in the game are wild creatures that live on the world. Currently, I do not plan to use the human characters from the cartoon, either. This is a story to some of the card-only monsters that I like, and what I think would have been a cool background story for them. I know that, when you get technical on things from the show and Egyptian mythology, a few things in here are horribly off. Remember, it's just a fun little story wrote off from the top of my head. I hope you enjoy it, despite a few mistakes. Also, as a last thing to address, this fanfiction could not be possible without one of my friends who goes to a TCG shop. I played againts his Blue-Eyes deck, lost a lot, and got inspired to make the polar opposite of his deck, a Red-Eyes deck. Very quickly, Red-Eyes became my favorite card, and I later decided to write a fanfiction that was inspired out of the fondness.

You know who you are, and if you're reading this right now... thanks.

Trials of Light and Dark

Chapter 1 - The Beginning

On top of a lonely mountain, inside a somewhat large cave, an egg wiggled in its nest as two dark adult dragons looked at each other lovingly, and at the egg in anticipation. After quite a long wait, the egg began to crack, bit by bit, until it crumbled enough for a small, baby black dragon to poke its head out, and stared at its parents for a moment with his almost-glowing red eyes, before continuing to break out of its' shell. The adult dragons simply watched as their newborn freed himself, proud to have such a healthy, strong looking offspring. Once freed, the female lowered her head down to nuzzle and lick her child.

"Those eyes, they are so... unusual, glowing as if there is a fire behind them," the adult male pointed out.

"Yes, they were the first thing that I noticed about him. His eyes are unlike either of ours. Taking this into account, I think I have a fitting name for him." she agreed.

"Oh?" He looked to his wife with a smile, and curiosity in his eyes.

She nodded, and hesitated for a moment before answering, and then softly spoke, half to the baby dragon, and half to her husband.

"Red-Eyes."

---

The years went by quickly, and smoothly. Red-Eyes had grown into what would be equivalent to a pre-teeanger. He was filled with curosity, as most young things are, and his heart overflown with love towards Eli, his mother, and Kly, his father, had left during them for his own adventures. Eli had tried her best to teach him to be kind, and, to Red's usual embarrassment, keep him clean and out of trouble; though he had learned much from her, due to the blood in his veins, he had not learned as much as he should have, and there were already signs of aggression and anger. For the time being, these feelings were subtle...

---

Days later, Eli had talked to Red-Eyes about someone she thought he should be around with.

"Oh, there is another kid like me!" Red asked excitedly, always being alone aside from his parents. He had seen Mother and Father with their friends, how they socialized, and he wished he could have something like whay they have. Sure, the love of family is grand, but he wanted someone he could fool around with, without getting lectured.

"Yes, very much so like you. He lives close by here, and he's around your age. Would you like to go see him?" Wether Red wanted to or not, Eli planned to make him. She figured this other kid would be a better influence to him than Kly, and maybe even more than herself. Knowing the parents of Red's future friend, and the offspring himself through occasional chatter of how their days went, she knew this was what was for best.

"Yes! Of course I want to! I'm tired of being cooped up in this dusty, old cave!"

She smiled, glad that the situation went easily. Picking up her son in a tight claw grip, she flew off to larger mountain area that was close-by.

---

Eli had arrived at her destination, landing infront of what seemed like a huge mansion, blocked off privately by powerful looking metal fences and a gate. It was not natural, and the sight of it sparked Red's curiosity.

"Wow, Mom! How'd this get here? Who or what made it? Why don't we live in something as cool as this?"

Eli shushed her son silent, "Questions may be answered later, but for now I have to do some talking," and with that, the dragoness raised her head, and let out a loud roar. Soon, there were loud steps being heard, coming closer to the gates of the mansion, and with each step a white dragon came into view more clearly. The gates opened with no button pressed, no lever pulled, and finally the white dragon was close enough to talk to, staring at Eli.

"You know that I exist to eradicate your kind, don't you, shadow?" The bigger dragon said this with a slight grin, a few of his deadly teeth showing.

Eli bowed her head, and closed her eyes. She showed no fear in her voice, but rather respect, "Yes, Great One. That is part of the reason I have came here."

With a cocked head, and somewhat confused eyes, he spoke once more, "Hrm, whatever do you mean? Have you came here to end your pitiful life by choice?"

She shook her head, "I would never let my life slip from my fingers without a struggle. Rather, I have come here with a... with a gift."

"A gift?"

"As I said. My wishes do not include to have my son slaughtered, or worse yet, being left alone. My wish is for you to take him in, to raise him as your own, White One."

He scoffed, and looked down at the, in his opinion, little runt of a dragon, "This puny thing? You'd think I'd taint my humble abode with such filth?"

At that, Red-Eyes growled softly, and blew a large stream of flame at the bigger male. Large for his size, anyways. It did nothing, however, and The White One didn't even blink, "Filth! I'm cleaner than you, dirt-face!"

Wiping his face where he had been "attacked", The White One continued on, "And ever so disrespectful."

If Eli was not infront of divine company, she would have probably nipped her child and talk to him, make him promise he'd never do such a thing. But right now, she just wanted to get her son to safety, inside of the mansion. The White One would probably discipline him later, anyways. So, she just kept her head lowered, and her eyes closed, "He's still young, sire. It's not too late to try to help him."

The White One looked down at her lowered head. He raised her with a single extended claw, and upon touch, Eli opened her eyes, and gazed into the almost glowing eyes infront of her. He spoke softly, genuine care finally showing, "You... are sure about doing this? You know what it means, right? He'll be raised to kill you, and your kind."

Red-Eyes cocked his head. He did not know the meaning of such painful, negative words yet, still in the child's ignorance that everyone's happy and lives forever.

"Yes, I do know what it means. But, at the same time, I feel that it opens up possibilities."

The White One simply nodded slowly, "Alright... I will take your son," he looked down to Red-Eyes, who was looking back and foreth to him, and his mother, "and raise him as my own."

"Huh, what? Mom, what's going on? You're not leaving me, are you?" Red-Eyes asked in quick succession, tears starting to fill his eyes, getting ready to spill out.

"Do not worry, son. This is for the best. We will see eachother again, someday. Not today, or tomorrow, but someday," the words burned in Red's heart as he watched his mother fly off, and he screamed out her name for her to stop, but she did not. The White One held him back when he started to run to chase her, willing to make a destined-to-fail attempt to fly after her. Once she was out of his sight, he simply layed his head on the big white hand that had him restrained, and cried.

He stopped crying, and instead gasped when a big tongue licked him on the back of his head. He turned his head, still sniffling, and looked at The White One.

"Don't worry, she'll be fine, and you will be, too. Come on, enough sad moments. Meet my son, inside." He pushed Red-Eyes to his feet, and walked slowly through the gates, turning back to make sure the small black dragon was following him before continuing.

---

Author: I hope you enjoyed this beginning chapter. I havn't written in so long, this felt good to type out. Quite obviously, this chapter is just to set up Red's beginning history, and to get him and his (durrr obvious of who it is) future friend together. Tell me what you think. The next chapter will be coming shortly. Oh, and one last thing. I know "The White One" isn't exactly the best name in the world, but it was kind of the first thing to come to mind. Besides, it sounds wise.


	2. Family

Trials of Light and Dark

Family

The White One brought Red-Eyes into his mansion, and at first sight, Red gasped. It was nothing like he had seen. The ceiling seemed to go up forever, and everything was enlarged to be the perfect size to the dragon. On the floor of the room that they were in, on the center was a huge painting of two dragons fighting, one painted white, the other black, and were inside of a circle with odd Egyptian symbols that Red could not comprehend. The walls were of stone blocks, solidly placed together, and huge enchanted torches that never went out were aligned evenly along the walls to light up the area. There was a large, heavy wooden double-door directly infront of the floor painting. Hundreds of yards away from the door, both to the left and to the right, were halls. What was in them could not be seen, but Red guessed it'd be similar to what he sees now. Directly beside the door were the beginning of a staircase, beautifully decorated with randomized diamonds, jewels, crystals, and gold and silver flakes. The stairs formed a circle as it went up, the doors of other rooms placed along the stairs. It was definately too enormous for Red-Eyes to venture around himself.

"I see that you like the sight of my home," The White One spoke softly to the smaller black dragon.

"It's freakin' huge! How'd you get something so neat! I've been living in a stupid cave forever!" Red-Eyes practically bounced with the enthusiasm his words held.

The White one chuckled softly, and then lowered his head to Red, "It was given to my family and I as a gift, and as a representation that we stand for them."

Red cocked his head, looking a bit confused, "Stand for them? What do you mean?"

The White One hesitated for a moment, gathering his thoughts together. He was told hundreds of times when he was a kid of the story by his parents, and them before him, and now him to a stranger, "Well, hundreds of years ago, the gods have been living on the land for an unrecordable amount of time, in flesh. They were gifted with immortality, and power that was feared by all that was vile. There were more than four, but the rest had jobs to care for the world that required less attention. Obelisk, Slifer, and Ra were the ones that lived together, and decided together upon what to do with the world. There was one other who lived with them as well, but his opinions on what to do with the land were often not taken into consideration due to the obvious darkness within his heart, and those who were unlucky enough to know his name at all, knew him by the name of Exodia. He often took advantage of the weak for his own greedy gains, and was more powerful than the rest of the gods, so no one tried to stop him, but instead often gave him advice, and warned him of his bad acts. Exodia never did anything majorly destructive, but he soon grew annoyed with constant lectures and ignored opinions. He would soon turn on them, but even though he had more than enough power to strike all three of them in seconds flat, he decided not to. If he did, he'd be casted away by magicians, forever restrained from using his power ever again, hidden in some far away place for all eternity. What was needed for him to succeed needed more silence, and Exodia knew just the thing. The pet dragons, of course, he thought.

Ever since the beginning of time, there were dragons the gods had made to inhabit the land as pets. All the creatures of the land were made by them, of course, but the ones that were kept closest to them were the dragons. The decision to create them were, of course, Obelisk, Slifer, and Ra. When Exodia's opinion was yet again ignored during the creation of them, he made carbon copy dragons of them. But since they were born out of his darkness, instead of the divinity of the others, they were darker, more sinister than the other pets. Thus, the white dragons and the black dragons, them being often called "shadows", were created. Throughout time, they brought Exodia stolen wealth and souls, all the while he denied to his other three "allies" that he had made them, and claimed that they were a defect in their creationism. Originally, they were just made to mock the other three's creation, and the white dragons started to be taught by the main three gods of how to battle more properly, in hopes to rid the world of the shadows. That's where this house comes from, it was originally the gods' home, and what lies beyond the door infront of you are the training grounds. But that's off topic.

Exodia decided to use the shadows he had created to battle their lighter half, the white dragons. They had the training of many lifetimes, unfortunately, and so his dark dragons quickly fell like flies with Exodia's rule over them. This very quickly caught the other's attention, and they acted swiftly. An attempt to bind Exodia's power for eternity with a powerful spell was made, and it succeeded. But, the spell took time, and they could not manage to stop him before he destroyed them with a single shot of his dark energy. Flesh and blood may be destroyed, but Exodia does not have the power to destroy souls. The spirits of Obelisk, Slifer, and Ra still lived on, and finished the ritual, casting Exodia away, in a land too dreadful to mention to any living thing. To this day, he still lives restrained, and the darkness in his heart communes with his creations, beckoning them all to free him. We still exist to find him and destroy him, as well as to fend off the dark dragons in hopes that they don't find him before we do."

Red-Eyes blinked a few times, and scratched his head, in thought for a moment, "Am I a shadow?"

Slowly, The White one nodded to the smaller dragon.

"If I'm so evil, then why have you let me in your home?"

The White One smiled a bit, "Your mother was the first shadow I have met that seemed to have a heart at all, and you're very young, so there's still a chance to take you away from Exodia's darkness, and into my light."

Red-Eyes yawned boredly, "You say lots of funny words that I don't understand. When do I get to see that one kid that my mom spoke of!"

The huge white dragon chuckled, finding it somewhat cute, but he knew better than to let it shrug off so easily, "You must listen to the stories that I tell you, for they are the most important things you must ever know. But for now, you will get what you want. I shall introduce you to my son."

The White One picked Red-Eyes up in his mouth, and slowly made his way up the seemingly infinite staircase. After passing a couple doors, he pushed open one, walked inside the dimly lit room, and dropped Red out of his mouth, the doors falling to a close behind him. A low yawn echoed throughout the room, and a small blue dragon laying in the corner of the room raised his head, his eyes cracking open, a hint of blue glowing from the child's eyes.

"Dad?"

"Yes, my son, it's me. I have brought someone new to our home," The White One smiled down to his son, but it was a little hard to see in the darkness. Just seeing how much his little one has grown made him proud.

The small blue dragon rose onto his feet, and edged closer to Red-Eyes, sniffing him a few times, "You smell funny. Where do you come from?"

At that, Red sniffed himself, and was a bit confused, as he thought he smelled fine. Shrugging it off, he replied, "I come from some nearby mountains. My mom dropped..." Until now, Red was caught up in the beautiful looking house, and the story The White One had told him, but the question had brought him back to reality. His mother, the only person he had ever known love to, had left him. Beginning to sob softly to himself, the other dragon around his own age lifted Red's head with his nose.

"Hey, don't cry, cheer up. Uhm... my name's Blue-Eyes. What's yours?"

Red ceased to sob, a slight smile forming on his face, "Funny, my name sounds like yours. I'm Red-Eyes."

At that moment, The White One lowered his head, and nuzzled Blue-Eyes, causing his son to fall onto his side and giggle, since it tickled to him, "And I'm your father!" They both laughed a bit.

Red-Eyes smiles at the sight, but at the same time seeing this made him feel lonely. His own father had deserted him shortly after he was born, but he didn't know exactly why. He was too young to remember, and his mother obscured the harsh truth from him. Seeing the sadness in his glowing eyes, The White One turned from his son, and to the black dragon.

"What's wrong, little one?" The White One asked with the same concern in his voice as what he would use if he asked his own offspring.

"Just that... my own father, I never really knew him. He left me and mom a bit after I was born. Seeing you two together makes me miss him," Red-Eyes spoke with his eyes looking to the floor.

Blue-Eyes frowned at this, but his face quickly lit up with an idea, "Hey, why doesn't my dad be your dad?"

The White One chuckled softly to himself. Of course, that was the plan all along, but he wanted to see the two act... cute, "Aw, well, I don't know, I was thinking of giving him to those nice daycare ladies."

Blue-Eyes and Red-Eyes both stood side-by-side next to eachother, looking at The White One with their glowing eyes, forcing a fake smile, and at the exact same time they pleaded, "Pleeeease?"

The White One sighed and shrugged, "Well, all right, I suppose it's alri-"

Before he could finish, Red and Blue both hugged The White One, saying repetitivly, "Thanks, thanks, thanks!"

Red-Eyes was the first to break the hug, and stepped back, looking up to The White One, "So, I guess I'll be calling you... 'Father'?"

The White One nodded, the joy showing through his face.

Red turned to Blue-Eyes, "What about your mom, where's she?"

Blue opened his mouth to answer, but before words came out, The White One interrupted, "Lana spends most of her time patrolling the mansion, but she comes here for a few hours at night, and occasionally works in daycare."

Red-Eyes smiled in content. A nice place, both a mom _and_ a dad, a brother; even a sweet place to live in! Maybe this place wasn't going to be so bad, he thought.

Maybe.


	3. Training Grounds and New Moves

Trials of Light and Dark

Training Grounds and New Moves

Days later, out in the center of the dragon mansion, in the training field, Blue-Eyes stood. An adult dragoness stood beside them, and other adolescent dragons, of all genders, surrounded them in a circle. In the background, the elders of the dragons watched as well, always interested to see how the future proctectors of the dragons were fairing. This was the "daycare" The White One had mentioned before, which was actually training. Since Blue-Eyes was the son of The White One, who was the leader of the dragons, Blue always got to fight first, againts whatever opponent he wished. Red-Eyes was his first pick.

"Iiick, a shadow!" A random child dragon said from the circled crowd, and the adult turned to him. With a stern look, he quickly fell back to silence.

"And now," a loud, strong female voice boomed over the field, all the living things nearby hearing clearly, "Blue-Eyes has selected his opponent for the day. He is a newcomer to our tribe, and has been granted entrance to us from the authority from The White One himself," a few of the kids stuck their tongue out to Red-Eyes, and the adult turned to them with an angry glare. Before her eyes could focus on them, their tongues slithered back into their mouths, but she still knew of the action. "Respect shall be given, unless I say otherwise. Now, let the battle between Blue-Eyes the White Dragon and Red-Eyes the Black Dragon.. begin!"

"Blue-Eyes always wins," a child dragoness said boredly, eyes lazily watching as if she knew the outcome of the battle.

Blue and Red lowered their heads, showed their fangs, and extended their claws at the same time, ready to attack. Slowly, they walked in a circle, keeping roughly six feet inbetween eachother. Red circled left, and Blue at the same time circled to his right to keep his opponent from gaining any apparent advantage. After a few short moments of snarling at eachother, Red-Eyes saw it fit to pounce his "brother". Some of the children gasped, surprised that Blue was taken off his feet, this being the first time for many to witness. Red attempted to snap his deadly fangs at Blue, but his jaw was held back by clawed hands. Blue-Eyes, still in the early stages of controlling his powers, seemed to lose control over himself. His mouth twitched open, and his eyes glew a much brighter blue as a small ball of blue energy formed in his mouth. Red-Eyes stopped snapping, and simply stared into Blue's mouth in confusion. It grew to the size of a baseball, and then shot out, becoming a beam of energy. It hit Red under his chin, making his head snap up, and his whole body flew into the air with the beam. After soaring about twenty feet, the energy ray finally withered away, and dropped Red down to the ground, landing him with a painful "Oof!"

"Blue-Eyes! What has gotten into you!" The adult dragoness hissed at Blue.

"I-I'm sorry, Mom! I was scared, and I lost control!" Blue raised a clawed hand, trying to explain himself.

Lana growled at Blue, and then turned to Red-Eyes, who's head was still smoking from the point-blank energy blast. Nuzzling him softly, Red finally cracked open his eyes to look at the dragoness hovering above him. His eyes were glowing more dim than normal.

Coughing weakly, he smiled to Lana, "It's only... a scratch," Red managed to choke out. With those words, his eyes closed again, and he fainted.

Turning to her son, she whispered into his ear, "You're in big trouble, mister."

Blue simply gulped hard, and nodded. Though Lana had spoken softly enough for no one else to hear, most of the crowd could guess what was said. The elders in the background shook their heads in dissappointment, and walked away. Lana picked up Red in her mouth, made way back to the living quarters; Blue-Eyes following close behind.

A bored sigh was heard, and the same female who commented before on Blue's all-wins-no-losses record before chimed in yet again, "I told you Blue-Eyes always wins."

---

Lana, with Red-Eyes in her mouth and Blue-Eyes by her side, reached the room that they lived in. Dropping Red down onto some soft coushining in the corner of the giant room, she turned to her son, with the most angry look Blue had witnessed to date.

"You could have killed him, you fool!" She yelled out, which caused Blue to scream, and Red to groan softly in his unconcious state. Seeing that screaming out her anger wouldn't help the situation, she lowered her voice to a low tone, but the anger still remained, "Do you have any idea how much trouble you are in now!"

Blue didn't look directly at his mom when she asked, and so she slapped Blue, making him whimper. This made him look up to his mom with tears in his eyes, and he nodded slowly, "Yes, ma'am."

The mother of the family continued on, now that she had her attention, "When I was your age, I **never**-!" Lana was cut off by a sharp hiss of pain, sipping away between her fangs. She turned around to look at what seemed to have stabbed her. Red-Eyes had unnonitcedly been stirred back to conciousness, witnessed Lana slap Blue, and carefully lifted up her scales so he could bite into her soft flesh.

Red pulled his bloodied fangs out, and spoke harshly to Lana, his eyes glowing a red that seemed to hold a bottomless pit of rage, "Don't. Slap. My. Brother."

Lana was in a short moment of shock. She had been bitten, such a disrespectful act from someone so much more... insignificant as herself! She deserved worship from someone so pathetically weak, especially from a shadow, and _especially_ since she was trying to protect him.

"You filthy little whelp! Why, I ought to throw you off the side of the cliff and hail rocks at you before you die from slamming into the stone ground!"

Red growled what hoarse growl could come from his weak throat, "Just try it, hag!"

Just as Lana had raised her claws to slap a deathblow to Red, the doors to their room opened. Lana turned, and saw The White One entering the room.

"There seems to be a lot of noise coming from this room. I also saw what happened at the training grounds. Is everything here alright?" The White One seemed to be unaware of the anger between Lana and Red-Eyes, though he did look curiously at the blood trickling from his wife's leg.

Seeing him look at her leg, she quickly thought of an excuse to get away, "I just came back to drop the kids off. I need to get back to patrolling," and with that, she quickly walked out of the room, and down the flight of stairs.

The White One turned to his children, with a concerned look on his face, "She's acting quite strange..."

Blue-Eyes quickly turned his head to his brother, whispering into his ear, "Don't tell him anything about Mom!"

Red's eyes widened, and he turned to Blue, "What! Why not?"

Annoyed, he nipped Red's ear, which got a light yelp out of him, "Just don't!"

The White One tapped a claw from his left foot onto the stone ground, "Well? Do you two know anything?"

Red-Eyes looked back to his adoption father, and back to the pleading eyes of Blue, thought for a moment, and shook his head, "Sorry, I don't know anything. Maybe she's just a bitch by nature."

The White One's mouth hanged open for a moment, "... Excuse me?"

Red cocked his head, not aware that he had done something wrong, "What?"

His father barred his fangs at Red, "I don't know where you learned a word like that, but around here, we do not call people by that name. Especially people who are far more older, wiser, and stronger than yourself. Treat her with respect - I don't care what your excuse is to not do so!"

Red-Eyes was about to protest, but Blue stopped him with a facial expression. He simply sat back down, pouting. The White One turned around, half of his body out the door. Speaking loudly enough for the children to hear, "You're both grounded until further notice. No leaving this room unless I or Lana escorts you."

Both Blue and Red screamed, "But that's not fair!"

Their father yelled back, "Deal with it!" He walked quickly out of the room, using his tail to grab the door handles and close them from behind. A loud click was heard, implying that the door had been locked.

Red grouned loudly, and turned to his brother, "Man, what were you doing! We could have told him the truth, and gotten out of this whole mess for free! We didn't deserve any of this, why do you have to be such a whimp?"

Blue-Eyes rose to his feet, and barked out to the ignorant half, "She's my mom, I can't do that kind of mean things to her! She may... hurt me, behind Daddy's back... but she's still my mom, and I'm not the only one who relies on her! Maybe if you loved your family, maybe if you had a heart, you'd understand!"

The black dragon roared softly, almost ready to pounce his brother, both of them getting in a battle stance. But, the words finally sank in, stabbing him like a knife through his black heart. 'Maybe if you had a heart...' That hurt him so much. He did love his mother, more than anything! But she had left him here, with these strangers, in this strange home, with strange rules. Was this some kind of punishment? He began to wonder if he loved someone who didn't love him back. Red lowered his head softly, and began to sob.

Blue edged closer to his brother, realizing a fight was not going to occur. He "hugged" Red with his neck, wrapping in around his shoulders, and licked at the shadow's cheek, "Don't cry, please don't cry! I didn't mean what I said, I was just angry."

Red half-angrily pulled out of the hug, and turned around, walking back to the coushining in the corner, curling up, "Don't be sorry. I deserved it."

"Don't say that! Of course you didn't," Blue-Eyes trotted over to Red's side, looking down at him. His brother refused to make eye contact, and simply stared at the stone wall.

"I'm just a disgusting shadow, not something meant to live happy. No soul, no friends, just death," Red was speaking loudly enough for Blue to hear, but it was mostly him talking to himself, putting his self-esteem even lower than neccessary with his own self-punishments.

Blue-Eyes growled, "No, you couldn't be more wrong! You're not disgusting! You have a soul, and you have a friend - me. I don't care if you were meant to be happy," at this time, the blue dragon licked Red's cheek, which was enough to grab his attention, and look back to Blue, "because I'll _make _you happy."

Red smiled to Blue, and licked him softly back on the cheek, returning the favor, "You better mean what you say. I'll stick by your side, as a friend... forever. Promise me the same."

The blue dragon sat up straight, and placed a clawed hand on his chest, "I cross my heart, and hope to die."

Red-Eyes laughed, and then his eyes lit up, remembering something, "Oh! Hey, I just remembered something. When you shot me with that energy beam thing..."

Blue chuckled nervously, scratching the back of his head, "Hehe, yeah, about that... sorry."

The black dragon shook his head, "Agh, shut up! I'm not looking for an apology," that caused Blue too look a little hurt. "Uhm... sorry. What I mean is, I wanted you to tell me how to do it, too."

Blue-Eyes blinked, "What?"

Red hopped on his feet, "Yeah! Show me how to do it, it'll be so cool! I bet I can do it better!"

"Hah! You think you can!"

"_Know_ I can!"

Blue grinned slightly, and scritched the bottom of his chin, "Well, I suppose I can try to show you. But I am a bit new to it myself, so I don't know if I can do it right."

"Just try your best!" Red could barely hide the excitement in his body.

Blue-Eyes shrugged, "Well, it's a somewhat hard to explain. You have to focus on something important to you, a strong emotion of some kind, which can sometimes be hard when you're in a heated battle, and your mind is filled with strategy. The power of the love, or whatever the feeling is, gathers in your mind, and the stronger the emotion is, the bigger the energy ball will form in your mouth. Or, atleast I think that's how Mother taught m-... hey, what are you doing?" Blue bursted out laughing, "You look silly!"

The shadow dragon's mouth hanged open, groans escaping him as he tried to follow Blue's instructions. Getting frustrated with the teasing, he sat stood up on the soft bedding under him, "Trying to focus on things to make energy!"

"What were you thinking of?"

"Food."

Blue-Eyes laughed even harder, spit flying out of his mouth and onto Red. The black dragon didn't even blink as the saliva hit him, but rather just looked a bit annoyed, "What's so funny, Blue-boy?"

"You can't make it work with the thought of food," he explained. "You have to think of something else. Like, say... earlier when we faught, I was thinking of my mom. That's how I formed my energy againts you."

"Moms, huh?" Red closed his eyes, and concentrated. He tried to think of how his mom used to talk to him, tell him urban legends before he went to sleep everynight, how she always told him he was special. He opened his mouth, attempting to form his energy, but nothing came. He wondered why.

"Uhm, maybe you're doing it wrong..." Blue suggested.

"Shut up. I can do this," he spoke harshly, not bothering to open his eyes to speak. Red pondered as to why the love of his mom was not powerful enough to do anything. Then it hit him. He didn't love his mom as much as he used to, infact, he was growing a rather strong disliking to her. The same went to most of the people of the dragon mansion as well. Flashes of all those children who teased him for what he is, Lana, even The White One was on Red's annoying list. The biggest one of all, ironically, was the one he knew the least: his father. The bastard had left them shortly after his birth, leaving him alone with an apparently uncaring mother. All the anger boiled in his heart, hidden away, completely unnoticed until Red-Eyes had searched himself for answers just now.

He opened his jaw slowly, feeling that he was ready. He couldn't see it with his own eyes, as they were closed, but he could feel something slowly form up in his mouth, and heared his brother gasp, "Red! Red, you're doing it!" It grew larger, and larger, until it was painful to even hold in his mouth. Red wasn't sure how to "launch" this energy, so he went with what first came to his mind. He raised his head back, and then suddenly jutted his head out forward, attempting to push the energy out quickly with his tongue, opening his eyes the second he did so. What he saw amazed him. The attack was unlike Blue's stream, but rather a solid black and red energy ball was surging towards the door of the room, and when it slammed into it, there was a large explosion of flames. The noise most probably got the attention of several dragon guards.

"Wooow, that was even more powerful than what I have ever done!" Blue-Eyes stared at the burning wood chunks around in the room, and then looked back to a smirking black dragon.

"Told ya' I could do it better."

Just then, a random white dragon came racing to the doorway of the room, "Oh my God! What has happened? Are you children alright!"

Red-Eyes poudfully trotted up to the guard, his head held high, "Yes, my lower-class standard protector. I was just showing off my moves to my little friend here."

"...What did you call me?"

Blue-Eyes chuckled nervously, running up to the guard, "Hello, good sir! I'm Blue-Eyes the White Dragon, you probably know me. We're fine, there was just a little accident."

The guard looked around, and nodded, "You two should get out of here. I'll call some maids to clean the place up. But, you must be aware that I have to ask how this happened. The White One will definately need to know."

Both of the children sighed, knowing that they just put themselves in even more trouble than what they really needed at the moment.

---

Author's Note: Now, before people go off complaining about how Red seems too much more powerful than Blue or something, just remember: Blue-Eyes is still early in his training, and Red-Eyes has a head start from Blue due to his focused anger. Things will change as time goes on.


	4. Punishment

Author's Note: Sorry for not updating in awhile. I've moved from Kansas to Las Vegas, Nevada, so that's been stopping me. Also, I've been depressed by lots of things, so that's been quite the hold up as well. Everytime I try to do something, be it write stories, play a game, or go search for a job, the names of people just pop into my head, and I lose all inspiration to do anything. But enough of that, you all want to read my story if you've made it to chapter four without losing interest, not hear my life's problems. I've went to the previous three chapters and did a tiny bit of editting. It's not worth going back and reading them for it, though, just typo-fixing for the most part. Those three chapters were made and posted nearly the same time, so it was kind of rushed. I don't regret it, though. Having a starting story with three chapters is better than one. It'd be like reading the first page of Lord of the Rings, and stopping right there. So, now that I have gotten my computer hooked up online again, and I've managed to sneak in this chapter inbetween my depressive states, I hope you all can enjoy this chapter of my story. Oh, and one last note. I've been considering making a more "intense" version of this fanfic. You may IM or e-mail me with questions. If enough people like the idea, I'll probably write alternate scenes for chapters, and e-mail them to you for your own entertainment.

Trials of Light and Dark

Punishment

The settings was in the top of the mansion, the highest room that only the leader of the dragons could normally enter. The White One often came here to meditate, or to hold meetings with his advisers, but today he has brought his offspring and his adopted son in to have a less-than-friendly chat with them. The leader laid on an enormous red circular bed, and four golden pillars surround the bed, holding up a beautiful pink sheet. The ground of the room was made of golden bricks, as well as the walls. Where the ceiling should have been, there was instead empty space, showing the star-filled sky, looking o' so beautiful. A strange, transparent green glow filled the space, though, an enchantment to ward off enemy attacks from the leader, if he so decided to sleep in the tower. There were also a three paintings of dragons infront of, and on both sides of, The White One's bed, in gold frames. A lush green carpet led from his bed to the heavy double-doors that led out of the room, and down a staircase. Glassless windows were everywhere on the walls, allowing anyone inside to see the entire mansion, which from this high up looked more like some kind of kingdom. This room was at the top of a tower, where the leader of the dragons' job would to be to look over all that he ruled, and protect it.

The White One roared down at the two children infront of him, "You've desecrated the sacred home of the gods and the dragons!"

Red-Eyes and Blue-Eyes gulped, and stared only at their father's feet, too afraid to look into his eyes.

"Normally, the punishment for this would be to kill you both infront of the rest of the dragons," at this time, Red and Blue gasped loudly, finally looking into The White One's eyes with a look that pleaded for mercy, and mercy they received, "but since you two are very close to me, I shall spare you from that punishment."

Blue-Eyes sighed with great relief, and licked at his father's feet gracefully, "Thanks, thanks!"

The White One growled softly at his son, causing the smaller blue dragon to back away next to his brother again, "Don't be so quick to give thanks. I'm still punishing you."

"Hey, come on, this isn't fair! All of this happened because-!" Red-Eyes yelled out angrily, but was cut off but his new father's following words.

"Silence! How dare you interrupt me! You shall receive far worse punishment than your brother for that. Your punishments are as follows: Our race grows larger every day. Despite how big this home is, we're running out of room. You two havn't ventured around much by yourselves, so you wouldn't know firsthand. So, I've planned to expand our home, and build a seperate building, more crude than this one. Only those who have broken our laws will help build this, it's their punishment. So, don't expect anyone to be nice to you two. Blue-Eyes, you will help the other adult dragons carry rocks and boulders that we'll use to build. Red-Eyes, you will help others melt those rocks into bricks, and cool them off, as well as making the paste we'll use to place them together; finally helping the others stack those bricks into their place."

Red-Eyes gaped his mouth open, and his eyes fumed with pure rage. His maw opened up to protest, but he was cut off yet again, "Don't speak unless you want to bathe and feed the tired dragons when they're too exhausted to work."

The White One looked over his two sons, and seeing that they had apparently accepted their punishment, he decided to dismiss them, "Since you decided to blow up your previous quarters, you two may sleep outside on the dirt of the training grounds. Leave at once," he rose to his feet, and pushed the doors open with his head. The other two young dragons walked down the staircase, and once the doors closed behind them, Red started a conversation with his brother.

"How could he do this to us? It's not even our fault, really! It all happened because of your stupid mother!"

Blue-Eyes growled, "Don't call my mommy stupid! Father's just trying to discipline us. It may seem pointless and harsh now, but we'll learn from it in the end."

The shadow laughed, "Learn? Learn what! We won't learn anything from it, our dad is just punishing us because he's a dick."

The blue dragon finally lost his temper, and snapped his jaws at his brother, closing them down over Red's neck, crushing off his air supply. He struggled to breath, limbs flailing in futility. His stomach was exposed to Blue, and he raised a claw, ready to strike, but instead, he released his grip over his brother, "Father loves us. Don't speak about him like that again," he licked at his lips, and swallowed Red's blood.

The black dragon felt his neck with his clawed hands. The scales that were protecting his neck had been crushed, and his neck was hurt badly, though not fatally. He looked at his brother with hurt eyes, and then angry eyes, and ran off down the staircase. Blue-Eyes did not say anything or run after him, but continued on at his own pace.

Blue thought to himself, 'He is wrong... isn't he? Oh, how could I even question that. Of course he is. He needs the punishment he'll receive, he'll learn from it. For now, I'll give him the space he probably needs, atleast for this night.'

Red-Eyes was the first one to reach the moonlit training grounds, obviously enough since he was running. It was empty and flat, like always, with a large pool in the middle that filled with rainwater and refilled again, sparkling from the moon. He hadn't noticed it before, since it was empty the other times he had been on the training ground, and the sight of this gloomy field was quite... comforting, in a strange way to Red. Just then, he saw a fellow dragon pierce from the surface of the pool, and then rest on the land, staring into the sparkling waters. The black child dragon was compelled to trot closer to the larger being, and sit next to its' head. Upon closer inspection, he noticed that it was actually a dragoness, and she looked stressed, her muscles quite tensed up, but slowly relaxing. She raised her head and looked into the smaller one's eyes, flatly saying, "What?"

When Red heard the voice, he realized instantly that it was Lana. He then mentally slapped himself, telling himself that he should have known, but it was too hard to see her very clearly in the dark of the night. If he had known before, he wouldn't have came to her side, so he made an attempt to get away with words, "Oh, sorry, I didn't know it was you. I'll let you rest," and he turned away from the bitch of all bitches, beginning to walk away, but he was blocked off by a clawed hand, and pulled him closer.

"I heard you blew up our room," she said almost emotionlessly, but there was deifnately the slightest hint of anger in her voice.

"It was your fault, whore! You-!"

Just then, Lana opened her maw, and in an instant, held Red's head inbetween her powerful jaws, fangs barely touching his neck. He whimpered, as her fangs poke againts his wound he received from Blue-Eyes, and the blood dripped from his wound and onto Lana's tongue. She released the child, and swallowed the blood, "Ever call that me again, and I'll bite your head off, weakling. Because of you, I have to sleep outside."

Red-Eyes growled, "You deserve it, dog."

The dragoness slapped the inferior shadow, knocking him to his back. Then, Lana wrapped her lips around Red's wound. He struggled to get back on his feet, but he was pinned down by the giant muzzle. She began to dig her fangs into his wound, causing him to bleed more, and she suckled harshly, causing the little one to scream in pain. After getting a hefty amount of black blood, and then Red began to weaken, flailing rest, the life slipping out of his eyes. Lana released her grasp, and swallowed, rubbing her belly in near satisfaction, "Oh, does your blood taste so sweet, filled with much more taste than the old, run-down adults of your kind. I do hope you screw up more often, so I can drink the rest of your blood, and eat your carcass," she then flapped her massive wings, flying off into the distance, the strong force of wind hitting Red like a punch.

Once Lana had left, Red-Eyes slowly got up to his feet. He had never been hurt this badly, only little cuts and scraped that his mother had always licked and said he'd be better. He stared at the blood trickling from his neck and down his chest, not sure of what to do. In the corner of his eye, he saw Blue-Eyes finally exit from the tower's staircase, and the white dragon simply laid down a little ways from the enterance, and dozed off. 'Not caring to check on me, I see," Red thought to himself.

'Enough of you, though, my brother. Dear Lana, you drank my blood, and I swear, I'll drink yours.'

--- The next day... ---

Red-Eyes was awoken by a painful jab to his shoulder from a claw. He growled, and looked up, his eyes focusing slowly. It was The White One.

"Your punishment begins," he picked Red up with his mouth, and carried him. Red would have whined about it and called his false father names, but when he tried to speak, he couldn't, it hurt too much, and his throat and mouth felt dry, and as if it was on fire. He felt his neck wound, and upon touching it, it stung, and he barely managed a small hiss of pain. It wasn't enough to get The White One's attention. Red-Eye's wound had gotten infected.

The White One dropped Red-Eyes from his mouth, not bothering to lower his head to make the fall easier. He landed on the ground painfully, and was then instantly locked around the waist with a metal braclet, that was chained and connected with other braclets, which were all connected to other white dragons. Behind him was another row, which Blue-Eyes was chained to, both of the groups having ten dragons, not counting Red and Blue. The two brothers did their best to ignore each other.

"You all know your jobs. Do them," the leader white dragon ordered, and instantly all of the chained dragons flapped their wings, and began to fly off. Red-Eyes screamed, dangling from the chain wildly, becoming dizzly quickly, and then began to vomit, a mix of puke and blood. He started to feel himself lose conciousness, but he was then grabbed by a set of frail jaws, them belonging to whatever dragon was chained next to him. It was a relaxing moment, but he fainted anyways.

--- Blue's Punishment ---

Blue-Eyes turned to the dragon next to him, who was a very masculine, intimidating white, health-looking dragon. His muscles bulged even through his scales, and he appeared to look... old, but his fitness hid most of that aspect. From the looks of it, if he wanted to, he could probably break out of his binding chains with ease. The large dragon seemed to look angry, his face scowled and his lips almost frowning. But no matter what, he needed to talk to him. Blue cleared his throat, trying to get his attention.

"Ahem, hey... mister?"

The large dragon looked down at Blue, not saying anything. His harsh-looking eyes sent a shiver down the child's spine.

"Uhm, I'd like to ask you to... uhm, hold me, for the flight we'll have to the mountains. My wings are too weak to keep up with the rest, and I'd just dangle and choke to death on my chain," Blue-Eyes couldn't help but say this in a somewhat soft voice, feeling to intimidated to look into the other's eyes.

He growled from the pit of his throat, and then slowly lowered his head, getting a grip on Blue-Eyes in his mouth. The kid couldn't help but eep gently, afraid of the jaws, but of course he was unharmed.

"You all know your jobs. Do them," and upon his father's orders, all of the dragons flew off, the two rows of chained beasts heading off in two directions.

The minutes went by slowly, but eventually, the group of dragons landed. They were on a mountain, with many huge rock chunks loose. Blue-Eyes was released softly onto the ground once they touched land.

"Th-thanks..." Blue-Eyes looked up slowly once he was released. The only reply he got was a low grunt, and then all of the dragons picked up large boulders in their mouths, one by one. Blue-Eyes looked around, and picked up a small rock. He couldn't carry much more, considering his size and all. The thought went through his mind just then, 'If the dragon next to me is carrying a boulder, then what'll I do to prevent myself from choking on the chains?'

As if the dragon had heard Blue's thought, before he picked up a boulder himself, he spoke to the child, "Just grab onto my foot." The voice was deep and powerful, as to be expected.

Blue-Eyes set the rock in his mouth down for a second so he could thank the stranger, "I appriciate the kindness. My name's-"

"Blue-Eyes, I know. Son of the leader, royalty, not to be mistreated, I know all to well... And your next question was probably going to be, 'What's your name,' wasn't it?" The large dragon looked down at the amazed look on the kid, picking up the signal that he was correct, "Yatex." With that, he picked up a boulder in his mouth.

Blue-Eyes quickly picked up his rock again, grabbed onto Yatex's foot, and the group of dragons flew off in the direction that the other chained group was in.

---

Two tall, black dragons stared down at their younger child, their faces unrealisticly twisted into a bloody mess, fangs poking out from the side of their faces, eyes not in the correct place.

"You're a pathetic little runt," one of the black dragons said, having a warped male voice.

"We both hate you. Putting you in that hellhole of a home was the best thing I ever did for you," the female of the two said. It almost sounded like...

--- Red's Punishment ---

He raised up quickly from his unconcious state, and still in that strange confused state where you're not sure if you're dreaming or what's real, he yelled out, "Mom! MOM, I HATE YOU!"

Once he opened his eyes, he saw a sick-looking, dirty blue dragoness looking down at him, and she took a step back when Red yelled out.

"Hey, sweetheart, it was only a dream." Her voice was comforting, but held the hint of weakness.

Red-Eyes sat down, catching his breath. Yelling out like that had hurt his throat, since he had yet to do anything about the now-itching wound. He couldn't resist, and he scratched it, but it hurt so bad to do it that he yelped out loudly on touch, and fell back.

A male next to the sick dragoness noticed the kid, "He sounds like shit."

"Yeah, I think it's something to do with his throat," she lifted the shadow's chin up, and gasped at what she saw. "Oh! Wow, that's badly infected..."

"He'll die in a few hours if you don't do something about it. But then again, he's just a shadow..." The male said with slight anger in his voice. If Red was in better shape, he'd probably spit a fireball, but he was too tired.

The sick female snapped at her chainpartner, "Everyone deserves life!" She looked down at the wound closer, "We need to get some herbs, and wash it with wate-"

Before the female could finish, the rest of the chain group began to breath out fire. It was shocking to Red to see, because it was the first time he had seen a dragon other than himself make any sort of special attack like that. He thought everyone did more magical things, like him and his fireball, and Blue-Eyes and his energy ray, but apparently, they seemed to be basic fire-breathing dragons. For a second, he assumed they were all attacking him, but then he noticed rocks everywhere, set in a rectangular case. They were breathing fire onto the rocks, and melting them into large bricks.

The male next to the sick dragoness spoke, "No time, we have more important things to do than save scum."

The female would have spoke out againts such actions, but there was nothing she could do. She just looked down at Red, and mouthed the words, "I'm sorry," and she went on to helping the others melt the rocks with her comparably weak flamestream.

A few minutes went by, and then the anti-shadow male near Red took a moment to look down to him, "Hey, we're all supposed to help. Get off your whimpy ass and do something!" With that, he shot a short burst of flame at Red, which would have killed him in this weak state, but the female next to him saved his life with a blow of her breath, withering the flame to nothing but smoke.

"Look at him! He can't help, you prick! Do you want to work him to death!" She barked out at him.

With an angry glare, he nodded, "Actually, yes, that was the plan, and as far as I know, the law states that anyone who protects a shadow is automatically to be killed on sight..."

"But he was accepted into the land by the leader, so that law is overruled," the female protested.

"I'm willing to turn the other cheek for that fact," and just then, he leaped at the sick dragoness, and in her health, she was easily taken advantage of. As all of this happened, all the other chained dragons stopped their work, and turned to the fight, egging for them to fight on. She fell to the ground on her back, and her survival skills took over, barring her fangs at her enemy, blocking the attempted bites to her neck, and clawing at his face. She succeeded in giving the male a large bloody scratch across his eye, which would probably blind and scar that eye once it healed. He growled with pure rage, and slammed his head down, smashing it into the sick one's face. The blow knocked several of her fangs out and had bent her bottom jaw completely out of normal position. She coughed up blood, and began to choke. The male kept her pinned down, until she died from her own blood in her throat.

Red-Eyes held his eyes wide open, shocked at what he had seen. Before him, someone had given their life in attempt to save his, and had failed doing so. No one had ever cared for him that much as far as he knew, and this coming from a total stranger. She didn't deserve that, Red thought, she didn't deserve that!

Red slowly rose to his trembling feet, fangs barred. He tried to growl, but he couldn't manage it. His eyes were smoking with red rage, quite literally. This caught the male's attention, "Haha! Oh, what, you want to fight me and die like your little bitch friend? Fine by me."

The shadow opened his jaw, aiming at the taller dragon, "What now, you'll shoot your baby flame at me? Oh, do try, little one. Here, have a free shot, right _here_," he bent down closer to Red, pointing to his face. Very quickly, a small red and black ball formed in his mouth, and grew larger, and larger, until Red-Eye's jaw broke, a loud snap easily heard, but he didn't care. If it meant he could make a more powerful attack, then it was fine by him. The male quirked an eye at the small dragon, and before he could do anything, a ball of fire and evil shot out right into his face, blasting him back. The chains around his feet broke when he was pushed back by the ball, and he kept on flying for yards and yards, until he slammed into the side of a nearby mountain. On impact, the energy ball exploded, and caused an avalanche to hail down onto the white dragon. There was no motion from the pile of rocks after the dust had cleared.

All of the chained dragons looked down at the small shadow in fear. They took advantage of the fact that with the broken chains from his attack, they could now fly away from him, and so they quickly flapped their wings and flew away to the safety of their mansion.

Red-Eyes had giving that blast everything he had left of him. Every ounce of strength and energy. He fell to his side, breathing hoarsely, and his breaths slowly became more distant from each other, until they stopped altogether...

---

Author's Note: CLIFFHANGER!


	5. The First Big Battle

Trials of Light and Dark

The First Big Battle

---In the tower...---

"Oh, son, I'm so sorry!" The White One nuzzled and licked his son, ashamed of himself for not controlling his anger to keep his son safer.

Blue-Eyes sniffled softly, "M-...my brother!" He began to wail uncontrollably in his father's sight, and it pained him that he couldn't do much to make things better.

"I... I shouldn't have pushed you two so hard. You two were too young to hang around criminals. I should have just made you two study, or train more," he got no response from his son, other than more cries. Blue didn't seem to be paying attention to The White One, "I'll punish everyone who was on Red-Eye's chain. They'll feel my wrath first-hand, up close and personal."

Ceasing to sob, Blue-Eyes quickly raises his teary face, "No! No, please. There's been enough punishing for this day..."

The White One hesitated to speak, but nodded with a faint smile on his face, "Very well, son. Sometimes, I think you'll make a wiser ruler than I one day." That got Blue-Eyes to smile, but it didn't last. He wasn't too happy about losing his brother, of course.

He sat up, and sniffled a bit, "I have a request, father."

"Speak it."

"I'd like my brother's body to be buried in the sacred graveyard of our family," Blue-Eyes had his mind set, speaking with complete strength.

His father cringed a little, "I... if I did that, it'd completely go againts all of our laws and rituals..." when he said this, he could see that his son was about to wail again, but before he could, "But, I do owe you for what I have done." He licked his son's face, "Your request is granted, but only if you bury your brother's body yourself. That is our family tradition."

The child dragon nuzzled his father, "I love you, Dad."

With a heartwarming smile, he returned the line, "I love you, too, son." He cleared his throat, and put on a more serious face, "Your brother's body has been placed in the mummification chambers. I'll guide you there, but once we reach the chambers, you'll have to go in by yourself." He got up on his feet, and began to walk, his son following behind him. They went down the staircase, and into the main hall of the mansion. They went into a door in the halls that Blue-Eyes had never been into before, and in this room were three sets of double-doors, one on the left and right side of the room, and the other on the opposite end of the door Blue and his father had entered from.

"The left one is the sacred cemetary, the right is the general cemetary, and the middle is the mummification chambers," The White One slowly explained to his young son.

Just then, a loud bang was heard, and the whole mansion shook. Without hesitation, The White One turned around and began to run out of the door, but before he left, he gave an order, "Stay here, Blue-Eyes! It's not safe to go anywhere yet, shadows are attacking. I'll come back for you!"

"Father!" But he couldn't speak fast enough, his dad had left.

---

The White One had quickly gotten out on the training grounds. It was wide open space, and with his loud voice, he could yell and have every living thing within miles hear, "We're under attack! Everyone, defend the base!"

The sky was dotted with black specks, and they swooped down, coming closer and more clearly visible as they descend. Black dragons rained fireballs down onto the mansion, and The White One shot short bursts of energy to counter the blows, to protect his home. With only seconds passing, hundreds of white dragons followed by hundreds more ran out doors and windows of the mansion, all shooting their own smaller beams at the fireballs. Soon enough, the black dragons came down close enough to get accurate enough shots that they could target other dragons, rather than just randomly hailing down on the stone mansion, and at the same time they were also more easily targetted. The black dragons quickly dropped like flies, but they seemed to keep coming, hundreds fell and hundreds rose in their place.

---

Blue-Eyes pushed and pushed on the large door infront of him, the mummification chambers. They were much too large for him to open, and they were made that way intentionally to keep children from running around, they'd get lost too easily in the giant mansion. He panted, tired from pushing on it so much. He took a moment to catch his breath, took a few steps backwards, and opened his mouth. Focusing, he slowly formed a blue ball of energy in his mouth, and shot it out towards the door.

---

Slowly, he cracked open his eyes. Everything was black, but he could just barely make out the outlining of a being infront of him. The outline was that of some kind of animal that he had never seen before, sitting in a chair. It looked like some kind of weird jackel, and it had such an unusually shaped body. It held a staff in one hand, the other hand resting on one of the arms in his chair. It spoke to him without opening its' mouth.

"Rise once more. You do not fall this day, for you are needed. This world rests in the choices you make, young one. Head for the clocktower, and make haste."

As if it was a dream, he opened his eyes and gasped a breath of air as if he hadn't been breathing in a long time. He pushed the crate, or door, or whatever it was infront of him that was blocking the way. He looked around the room. Coffins stand againts the walls, all of them varying in size. He was at the end of a long tunnel, dimly lit by only a few torches, as if someone was afraid that lighting the area too much would stir the dead. Just then, he heard a loung crash, and a flash of blue light at the other end of the tunnel. He knew who it was that instant of light, he sensed it in his heart. He climbed out of the coffin, and scrambled to the end of the tunnel.

---

Blue-Eyes took the moment to feel proud of himself for having the strength to blast an entire door down with his energy, even though he felt pretty drained from gathering that much of himself into one shot. He waited for the dust to clear, and when it did, he saw a small black dragon, around his size, standing in the doorway. The dragon had a cocky smile, and finally cracked open his eyes to look at the other.

"Miss me?" Red-Eyes asked calmly.

"Oh my God! Oh, this can't be real!" Blue-Eyes quickly ran towards his brother, sniffing him. Red's neckwound was gone, and his jaw was no longer broken. He seemed to be in perfect shape.

"As real as you, pipsqueak!" Red jabbed his brother's shouder with a claw.

"How did you...? When...? I thought you were-!" He was cut off by his brother.

"Dead? You think a measly full-grown white dragon could take me down? Puh-leez!" Red-Eyes placed both of his clawed hands behind his head, and leaned back againts them, standing on his hind legs.

"Stop joking around, Red! Serious stuff is going on," Blue explained, annoyed at first, but then hugged his brother, which meant he wrapped his neck around brother's, and licked his cheek, "I'm glad you're alright. I didn't mean those things I said and did to you before, I thought I'd never get to apologize to you again. I... I love you."

Red-Eyes hugged back, and returned the lick, "I love you, too, brother. It's alright, I forgive you." Blue-Eyes was all he had. 'He's the only person in this world who loves me,' he thought. Not realizing how much he missed him until he didn't have him anymore, he couldn't let him go, and the shadow would keep his promise.

Blue-Eyes broke the hug, "So, pleeeease tell me, how'd this happen? You're supposed to be dead."

"I'm... not too sure myself, in all honesty. I was with the chain group your father assigned me on..." Red-Eyes re-told the story of what had happened to him, and with every word, he unwrapped the hatred in him that had been covered up by the excitement of meeting his brother again.

"Wow, that's... saddening, but the dream part was amazing!" Blue-Eyes hopped up and down with joy for his brother.

The black dragon quirked an eye, "Amazing? Why?"

"You just met someone so great, who gave you a second life, and you have no idea who it is! Oh, this is grand!" The blue dragon fell to his side, kicking his legs and laughing.

Red growled down to his brother, "Now it's time for _you_ to stop making jokes! Who did I meet?"

"You just met this world's god of the dead. You met Anubis," Blue said with great awe, though it didn't appear to have much affect on his brother.

"I'll send him a thank you card. Now, anyways, he told me to go to the clocktower. Do you know where that is?" He looked curiously into his brother's glowing blue eyes.

Blue-Eyes scratched behind his left ear with a hindclaw, "Uhm... I've only been there once, I suppose I could take you there. Let's go!" He quickly scrambled up to his feet, and began to run.

"Last one there is rotten egg," Red-Eyes yelled out to his brother, and they both giggled the entire time that they were running. Of course, though, Red had to stay behind his brother since he didn't know the way, so he could only wonder how he'd feel as being a rotten egg.

After running through the halls and running through doorways, lastly climbing the same staircase that lead to The White One's tower room, in a seperate branched room that the two dragons failed to notice before. The reason for that is because the doorway was covered by a black drape, and it had now fallen off from the outside black dragon attacks that had shaken the structure. They entered, and saw from wall to ceiling covered with dozens upon dozens of clocks, all ticking in sync, and all reading the exact same time. They couldn't tell what time it was, though, since they couldn't read clocks. Red-Eyes didn't feel much different.

"So, what now?" Blue-Eyes asked after a moment of silence.

Red-Eyes walked around the room, looking at all the clocks. All of the ticking annoyed him, and when he finally got to the end of the room, he turned around to his brother, "I don't know why he told me to go here! There's nothing but a bunch of junk in this room."

With those words, all of the clocks instantly stopped ticking. The boys looked around the room, feeling a little scared, and then an annoying, high-pitched mechanical voice echoed throughout the room, "Nothing but a bunch of junk, you say! My boy, you aren't looking hard enough."

"Who was that?" Blue-Eyes yelled out bravely, getting in a battle stance, and Red-Eyes did the same. They looked around, trying to find the apparent enemy.

"You two need to calm down. My suggestion would be to eat more veggies and less meat. That always helps my stomach," the voice then laughed and laughed, as if he made the funniest joke in the world, until Red-Eyes interrupted.

"Shut up, you stupid... stupid thing! Show your face!" Red-Eyes barked out angrily.

Then, very quickly Red felt a loud smack on top of his head. A clock that just so happened to have legs and arms held a staff, had jumped from the wall, smacked the black dragon on top of the head with a staff, and then held the staff in that same spot, holding himself up so Red could see him. It has a red body, feet with purple socks, a purple and blue cape, a staff that had a purple handle with a golden sharp pointy end, and it also happened to have a clock on the other end with golden hands. His "face" was blue and gold, and had a "mustache" that was actually two green clock hands, and many golden wheels attached his limbs to his head. He had no middle body, just a head and limbs.

"Here's my face, how do you like it? I think I'm quite cute. And I'm not as stupid as you, I read more books!" The clock began to laugh his annoying mechanical laugh again.

Red-Eyes growled, and attempted to bite the living machine, but it leaped back the second before the jaws closed in on him, and landed safely on the ground. Standing on the ground face-to-face with the children, they got a look at his height, too. He was barely taller than them.

"You're _really _starting to annoy me, clock," Red-Eyes warned.

"You're _really_ starting to let your hatred rule over your actions, child. If you let it go on too soon, you'll lose everyone you love. Your brother, your mother. You already lost your father, do you blame yourself for that, too?" The clock asked in a tone that was meant to annoy the dragon.

The black dragon gasped, surprised by the clock's knowledge, "How do you know that! Did you have something to do with my parents! I'll rip you apart!" He charged at the clock, but Blue-Eyes stepped infront of him.

"No, don't! He might be able to help. Clearly he doesn't want to hurt us, or he'd have done so already, and I don't think my father would let him be here if he was an enemy," Blue tried to calm his brother down.

"Hurt us? He already hurt me with that stupid stick of his!" Red yelled.

"You should listen to your brother. He has a bigger brain than you," the clock poked Red's head with the sharp end of his staff. It didn't hurt him, just annoyed him.

'Another name on the annoying list,' Red thought. 'You win the first place prize.'

Blue-Eyes turned to the clock, "So, can you help us?"

"Why, I most certainly can! Only the top adviser of your father is a suitable ally for the situation, and the situations to come!" The clock said with pride, saluting Blue-Eyes.

"My father's top adviser is a clock?" Blue-Eyes cocked his head, and sniffed the machine.

"Don't do that, no! You're making my nuts and bolts tickle! Hehehe!" The clock fell to his side and giggled.

Red-Eyes stomped next to the clock, causing the adviser to hop onto his feet in an unrealistic amount of time, standing a safe couple feet away.

Blue-Eyes eyed his brother with annoyance, and the shadow dragon simply smiled. Blue turned back to his father's adviser, "So, tell us more about yourself, the situation, and what to do about it."

The clock stabbed his staff into the ground, and stood on the clock end of it with a single finger, having himself upside down, "Yes, young prince! I am a time wizard, which is why your father needs me so much. The rest of the machines around here are decorations of my own choosing."

"Oh, I'd _love_ for you to decorate my room," Red-Eyes sarcastically said.

"I'd probably do that if you hadn't of blown the door up."

Blue-Eyes smacked the ground with an angry hand, which caused the wizard to lose his balance, and fall onto his feet, "You two, stop kidding around! Back to business. You're a time wizard? What's that mean?"

The wizard leaned againts his staff, "Why, simply enough, it means I can control time, but only to an extent. And even with my limited powers, there's only a fifty-fifty chance that my powers won't backfire. That's why your father doesn't let me use my powers, and only asks me for advice. But I'm afraid the time is coming that I may just have to use them anyways."

Blue-Eyes nodded, "Alright, Time Wizard. What's the situation?"

Time Wizard pointed to a window with his staff, "Look for yourself. It's quite a the sight."

At that cue, Red and Blue walked to a large window, and looked outside. The entire sky was black, but it wasn't night. Thousands of black dragons cover the sky, the land, fire blasts and burst streams going and coming from every direction, bodies of both white and black falling like flies. In the distance, Blue-Eyes could see his father fighting for his life, taking dozens of dragons out with every stream he made. Two dragons had a grip on his back, and he slammed himself into the ground back-first, crushing them. It was obvious by the look of his face that he was losing his strength, but he wouldn't go down without a fight. Even with the enchantments, much of the mansion lay in ruins. The two children backed from the window, and looked towards the wizard.

Red-Eyes asked without much hope, and with much panic, "How are we supposed to help againts all of those shadows! There's thousands of them!"

The annoying machine did a twirl, with his staff laid horizontally on his raised palms, "Why, isn't it obvious? With my help, you two could beat them!"

Blue-Eyes smiled, "All of them? We're that strong?"

The wizard laughed, slapping the side of his "head", "Pfft, all of them? What are you, **nuts**! Haha!"

Red-Eyes growled angrily, and considered shooting a fireball at the clock, but he decided to save his anger for the shadows outside.

"Of course not, my dear! You just have to beat the leader. Without him, they have no brain, and they'll all lose. I can make you two strong enough to do that much." Time Wizard nodded, folding his hands behind him.

Red-Eyes thought for a moment, "Does that mean I'll die when the leader dies?"

"No, because you are stronger than them. You've grown to have a mind of your own, and don't require to have your soul connected to another. Though your brain isn't very big, it's big enough to keep you alive."

Red simply growled.

Blue-Eyes ran infront of the machine, and it didn't show any sign of surprise, "Then do it! I have to save Dad!"

The most annoying clock in the world sighed, "Alright, alright! But don't blame me if this screws up because you rushed me. Alright, you two. Holds hands. Or clawed... things."

The two brothers looked at each other, and did so.

The wizard then said without a change of tone, "Okay, now kiss."

Red-Eyes barked, "Hey, what the hell! We're supposed to be saving people, not giving you a show."

Time Wizard scoffed, "I'm just joshing you! Anyways..." He floated above the ground a little, and held his staff up high. Suddenly, the clock on his staff began to spin wildly, faster and faster. Behind the wizard was a green mystical swirl, and it hypnotized the two dragons. They got dizzier and dizzier, and then they fell to the ground, with a much larger thud than they thought was normal.

Blue-Eyes groaned, and opened his eyes, "Oogh, I feel weird. Time Wizard, what did you-!" He cut himself off with a gasp. His voice was deep, loud, and powerful. He looked down on himself, and what he saw shocked him to no end. He was a fully grown white dragon, with an even more powerful build than his father's. He stared at himself, until he heard his brother groan, and looked over to him, his eyes just starting to crack open.

Red-Eyes didn't look much like his brother as an adult. Before, as children, they were much more even, and Red-Eyes even had a power advantage over his brother. But now, as an adult, he looked more frail. His maw was thin, and had a sick, sharp point, while Blue's was more oval, the power of it evenly divided, rather than being focused on a pointed end. His hands were bondy with sickeningly pointy and sharp claws. Red's entire build seemed to focus on swiftness and deathblows, while Blue-Eyes' build was much more balanced.

The mystic machine hopped up and down, "Yes! It worked! You two are now powerful enough to go out and save the day! Hurry, shoo shoo! I'll be watching in the safety and comfort of my own room."

Blue-Eyes and Red-Eyes both rose to their feet. They proudly looked at themselves, and nodded to eachother.

"Are you ready to do this, brother? I must ask you to be careful. You look much like the enemy, and the other white dragons may attack you," Blue-Eyes asked Red seriously.

"More than you are. I bet I can smack down more dragons than you," the shadow dragon smirked.

The larger white dragon scoffed, "Oh, I accept that challenge. Here's what we'll do, I'll go after my father, and you try to find the leader. I'll catch up with you as soon as I can," and then Blue-Eyes suddenly leaped out of the tower window, and began to fly with unmeasurable speed by any other creature towards his father. Red-Eyes followed behind him for a short while, but then dived up into the sky to go on his own path.

---

Blue-Eyes almost reached his father, but his massive size caught the attention of countless black dragons, and they began swarming in, 'By Gods, what has attracted so many damn shadows!' Without hesitation, the white dragon opened his mouth, focused his energy for a moment, and just seconds before he was attacked, he launched a giant burst stream of energy down to the ground, vaporizing the enemies, and he twisted his head as he shot the beam, so that he shot in all directions, taking out countless dragons with that single attack. 'I think I just beat your challenge, Red,' he thought. Blue-Eyes felt drained after that attack, but he couldn't slack off now, he was too close to his father. He flew as fast as he could, and finally reached him. The White One was in bad shape, now down to only pure instinct and adrenaline. He was bloodied all over, and had a shadow dragon's maw latched onto the back of his head while another attacked his back, and another brave enough to attack from the front. Blue-Eyes landed infront of his father, and roared a roar that cracked the earth. He smacked the one infront of the leader of the whites, breaking every bone in its' body in one swipe. The other two shadows started to fly off in fear, but Blue-Eyes quickly focused his energy again, and sent an intentionally much smaller beam of energy at the two. He bull's-eyed the targets, breaking their backs on touch, and they fell to the ground, leaving a stream of smoke.

The White One stared at his son, but not knowing who it actually was. For once, Blue-Eyes saw fear in his father, "Wh-who are you?"

Blue-Eyes didn't have time to explain, he needed to go find his brother and help him, "Your savior, and let's leave it at that. You need to rest, or you'll die, and I'll never forgive myself if that happens. Leave the battlefield!"

His father shook his head, "No, I can't leave! I have a son to fight for!"

Blue-Eyes stood tall, and growled down to his father, "Don't make me force you to flee. It'd hurt me more than it'd hurt you," that struck enough fear to make The White One have second thoughts. His son then bent down and whispered into his ear, "And you'd make a poor father if you didn't remember that you had two son's."

The White One's eyes widened as if he remembered something, but then looked to Blue-Eyes in confusion, "How'd you kn-?... Oh my God..." That's when The White One finally noticed the bigger dragon's eyes. They glowed blue, and only one white dragon had eyes like that.

"Leave, father," his son begged. "Leave it to me. I can handle it, trust me."

He stared in awe at his son, and then nodded, "Alright, I shall," he turned, flapped his wings, and when he rose off the ground several feet, before he flew away into the safety of his enchanted tower, he turned his head to Blue, "Make me proud."

Blue-Eyes nodded, and then turned around to look for Red-Eyes, 'Shit, how am I supposed to find you? All of you damn shadows look the same...' He then saw the biggest fireblast that he had seen any shadow dragon make this entire battle, and then immidiately flew towards the area that the shot had occurred, 'Here I come, brother.'

---

Red-Eyes wasn't as fast as his brother, and he felt somewhat jealous because of that. But he quickly shook that thought out of his head, and swooped up into the sky, so that he wouldn't have to stare at his superior friend the whole battle. Not to mention that he was supposed to find the leader, anyways.

He looked around, and formed a strategy to himself outloud, "Well, if I was a leader of thousands of pansy dragons, where would I be?... Hrm, I'd be at the end of the line to have meatshields take my orders. So, that's where I'll go. It only means that I'll have to dive into the middle of thousands of blood-thirsty, retarded brutes to get to you, but that shouldn't be much of a problem."

Red-Eyes could see reinforcements coming from the east, and so he figured the remaining dragons, and probably their leader was there, so he flew swiftly in that direction. Although he wasn't as fast as Blue-Eyes, his swift build gave him better control in the sky, and he could more easily avoid objects, which came in handy with other dragons flew past him. Very quickly, Red realized that no other dragons were attacking him. They all recognized him as their own kind. 'Haha, idiots. Oh well, makes my job all the more easy.' He quickly flew over the mountain that they apparently originally came from, and landed on a flat plane, which sure enough was a group of dragons sitting there. Thousands covered this field, and Red couldn't help but only wonder how only a eight or nine _hundred_ dragons kept the fight at the mansion going for so long. But then again, he thought, they are infinitely more powerful when compared to a shadow one-on-one, so it only figures. Infront of the resting dragon army was the largest shadow Red-Eyes had seen. It was as if it was the evil, souped-up version of Blue-Eyes. Standing at a minimum of fifty feet, twice as tall as any other shadow, minus Red-Eyes. Red was about thirty-five feet, and Blue-Eyes was around fourty-five. 'Must be the leader. You don't look so...' he gulped inbetween his thought, 'tough.'

The leader turned around to Red-Eyes, "Yes, are you a scout? What is your report, has the white race been crushed yet, and have you gotten any more information on Exodia's location?"

Red-Eyes shook his head, "No to all questions, sir. I do have information regarding your future status, though."

The leader looked at the other dragon, though, "What the hell are you talking about? You better kiss my ass real good, or you're going to be my next meal."

"Sorry, sir, I don't have lips, so I can't kiss your ass. I guess I'll have to kick it instead," Red-Eyes said with the upmost sarcastic respect.

"Oh, why you dirty piece of shit!" The leader charged at Red-Eyes, and before he could make any reaction, he had the wind knocked out of him.

The blow cuased him to soar into the sky hundreds of feet, and the shadow leader flew up after him. Right before he was about to get a second blow, Red used his proficient evasion to barely avoid the next blow. The larger shadow looked surprised, as if he wasn't used to failure, and the mere thought of it confused him. Red-Eyes took advantage of the moment, and rushed at his enemies' back, gripping his shoulders with his claws, digging them in, piercing right through scales and into flesh. He bit down on the back of the leader's neck, crushing it for a second. Right when he thought this was going to be a slice of cake, the tail of the enemy wrapped around his leg, and pulled him off. He began to twirl, picking up speed, and Red knew what this meant. When he was released, he was lunged west, flying back over the mountain he had originally flown over. He tried to slow himself down to once again have his flight in his own control, but he failed. When he looked back in the direction of the leader, he could have sworn the very sun was flying towards him. He focused his rage, 'You think you're stronger than me, that I'll let you kill my brother? I'll rip you apart with a toothpick!' Red-Eyes felt his energy quickly built up, feeling more power in his mouth than he had ever felt before. He could only hope that it'd be enough to collide with and stop the oncomming attack. 'I'll have to wait until it's practically right infront of my damn face, or it won't be charged enough to do anything, I just know it. I'll be scorched in flames if this works, but I'll be alive.' Red waited until he could feel the heat of the coming from the oncomming fireball, until his mouth ached with the intensity of the unlaunched attack. 'Here goes nothing!' Red held his head back, and then jutted it out forward, spitting his fireball out. His fire blast was roughly fifteen feet all around, but Red-Eyes felt in the pit of his stomach that it wouldn't work. The other attack was twice as big. They collided, and a massive explosion occurred. It fried most of Red's scales to ashes and left his flesh out in the open, causing him to burn badly. He picked up even more speed from the collision, and was headed right for the ground. 'The impact will kill me. This is the it, isn't it?...'

Just then, he stopped. Going so fast and stopping suddenly hurts like a bitch, and whoever caught him grunted, and flew back a few yards, but with massive wings managed to slow down enough to gain control again.

"You alright, brother?" Blue-Eyes asked with the most sincere worry in his voice, seeing his best friend burned and bloodied hurt him deeply..

Red-Eyes coughed, black smoke coming from his mouth, "Yeah, I'm just dandy."

Blue-Eyes looked up to see a dragon larger than him headbutt his chest. He dropped Red-Eyes, who was too fried to redeem himself in the air, and fell on trees below, which crunched under his weight. Blue-Eyes shook the impact off as best as he could, and got a better look at the being before him.

At this point, Blue-Eyes had an 'Oh, shit' look on his face.

"That's right, you better be afraid." Blue-Eyes looked around, now noticing that all of the black dragons float motionlessly in the sky, forming a circle around Blue and their leader. All of the other white dragons were either dead, or had fleed.

"You're too powerful to die at the hands of my grunts, that'd wouldn't have any honor. I'd love to take you on myself. It'd be a nice warm-up, anyways," the leader cracked his neck, and grinned at his opponent.

Blue-Eyes put on a much more confident face, and stared angrily at the shadow dragon. His eyes smoked with blue mist, "You shall die for what you have done here."

"Strong words, from a weak dragon," the evil one laughed loudly, but Blue held his face. "We'll see who dies."

For a moment, they both just stared at each other in a tense, silent second. Then, before Blue-Eyes could even blink, the dark leader had flown infront of him, and his claws had dug into Blue's stomach. He gasped, spitting out blood, and the clawed hand twisted, making him raise his head and yell. Once he was out of the initial shock, he slammed his head down onto his enemy's, causing him to pull his hand out and fall back a few feet. Blue-Eyes twirled, his tail slamming into the side of the leader's face. He fell back another couple feet, but then growled angrily, and with a mighty roar, he flew towards Blue again, one of his claws slightly retracted more than the other, giving away that he planned to repeat his last attack. Blue saw this coming, and stood still. He caught the hand that aimed at his bleeding stomach, and twisted it, a loud snap heard by the two fighters. The leader yelled, and attempted to bite at Blue's jugular vein, but Blue-Eyes did a back-flip in the air, and his tail came flying upwards, uppercutting the shadow at the chin. The blow made him fly up a few yards, and then finally caught his air again, shaking off his dizziness. He opened his maw, and a faint red and black glow formed in his mouth, slowly growing brighter.

'He's too far up for me to prevent the attack, and I saw how much it screwed Red up, so I probably can't avoid it, and I'm not too sure if I can overpower it like Red had attempted... This isn't good.'

Just then, Red-Eyes flew up behind the leader, and slammed his tail on the back of the superior dragon. It caused him to swallow and choke on the ball, and then Red headbutted his back, making him grunt loudly, but not much more. He turned around, and roared in Red's face. The battle-worn black dragon roared back, with just as much rage, and his eyes fumed red, leaving a trail of mist floating high. Red knew he couldn't win, atleast not alone, but he wouldn't show fear when facing death, only power.

Then, the leader stopped, and just looked at the one infront of him, "Those eyes..."

"That's the only thing you notice when you're face-to-face with the dragon who'll make you see your maker," Red-Eyes yelled, forcing confidence to come out of his mouth.

Red received a growl, "Shut up, you mere child! I know who you are now." He began to laugh insanely, it echoing over the whole field, "I know who you are!"

He attempted to spear the stranger with his sharp muzzle, "Shut up and fight! You don't know me, you bastard!"

The dragon easily avoided it, and caused him to ram into his brother, who was about to take advantage of the fact that the shadow leader had his back faced to him. Red pierced Blue's leg, and quickly pulled out of the wound, "Shit, I'm sorry!"

Blue yelled out in pain, but said nothing in return. Instead, he kept focused on the leader.

"I know you, haha! Oh, how I could toy with you now," the savage was giggling to himself now.

Blue-Eyes roared, "Shut up and just say you who are!"

He raised his head to look into Red's eyes, "You silly little excuse of a dragon. Don't you recognize your own father?"

The hero shadow dragon's eyes widened, and he stared at the massive beast, "...Wh-what?"

Blue-Eyes looked back and foreth from the two, "You're really his father?"

The leader nodded slowly.

Red-Eyes held his head low with his eyes closed, "All my life, Mother had told me that you had died, but I knew something was suspicious. She didn't shed the same tears that I shed, none of her friends did, either. No one did, I was the only one who cared," he then raises his head, his tearing red glowing eyes looking to his father, and his voice raised to a yell, "and now you, you son of a bitch, show yourself! After the story that The White One had told me, I can now connect the dots! You bastard, Kly! How could you!"

Kly laughed loudly, "How could I go out and search for the god who gave me life? I owe it to him. How your mother managed to refuse his calling is beyond my understanding. She denied his will, and she paid for it."

Red-Eyes barred his fangs, "Paid?"

"Yes, paid. You know, died. That whole gig."

"_NOOOOOOOOOO!_" Red-Eyes instantly opened his jaw, and quickly formed a fireball, shooting it at Kly. His father dodged with ease, and even sighed as if he was bored.

"Oh, you're so much weaker than I had ever hoped. Though you did grow up quite fast..." He yawned out.

"Stop toying with us and fight like the bitch you are!" Blue-Eyes opened his mouth, and shot a burst stream at Kly. He danced around it as the white dragon twisted his head around to chase Red's father with the energy beam.

"Oh, but this is so much more fu-Oof!" He was cut off when a fast little blur came down and smacked him on the head.

"Boop!" With a swing of his staff, Time Wizard had seemingly fell from the sky out of nowhere, and now floats inbetween Blue, Red, and Kly.

"Why, you annoying little clock! What the hell do you think you're doing, standing inbetween dragon business, you tiny weakling?" Kly roared out at the machine.

"If you think I'm weak, you're looking in the wrong places for strength. Oh-ho-ho-ho, my friend! Looking way off!" The clock danced in the sky as he mocked Kly.

Red-Eyes whispered to his brother, "Maybe Time Wizard can annoy Kly to death."

Blue-Eyes barely held back a laugh, but responded, "Nah, they're pretty even in that department."

Kly scoffed down at the clock, "What do you think you can do? Impress me." The dragon crossed his scaled arms, and waited.

The wizard floated behind the two dragons, "Alright, you two. You may want to put on sunglasses, as this lightshow has been known to make ceasures."

Before anyone could ask what sunglasses were, Time Wizard held up his staff, and blurrs of color began to form around Red-Eyes and Blue-Eyes. The colors swirled faster and faster around the two, until their own colors began to mix with the floating pool. They both screamed in shock, and couldn't move. There was a flash of bright white light, and Kly covered his eyes from it. The screams continued. Or rather, scream. The voices seemed to have mixed into one voice, and when Kly uncovered his eyes, before him was only one dragon. One sixty-five foot grey dragon.

"Congradulations, clock. You have indeed impressed me." Kly looked amusingly at the new creature.

"It doesn't end there," Grey Dragon said.

He took a deep breath, filling his massive lungs. At first, Kly thought he was charging for his signature attack, and figured he'd rush to headbutt his gut to counter it. But before he could land a hit, Grey Dragon simply blew a gust of wind out of his mouth at the inferior black dragon, sending him flying back. That was just to give them some distance, so he actually _could_ charge a signature move. He opened his mouth, and for a few seconds, there was nothing. Then, a blackish-blue orb formed in his mouth, growing larger and larger, but the process was very slow. This fusion was huge and powerful, but the muscles weighed him down. Half-way charged, the shadow leader rushed in for a hit, quickly getting in over two-thirds the way. He could have succeeded in countering the charge attack, but Time Wizard flew down and bopped him on the head again with surprisingly painful strength, just enough to make him wince and stop in his tracks.

"Say cheese!" Then, the wizard flew out of the way just in time for Kly to look in absolute horror as a burst stream of judgment flames flew in his way. He screamed as he fire hit him, "It's too late! You've already lost," causing him to incinerate, becoming ash, and then the ash became nothing. Grey Dragon ceased his attack, and looked up to the wizard.

"I thank you for your assistance. The world would have been doomed, if not for you."

"You are welcomed, my small pet!" Time Wizard triumphently raised his staff to the sky, using word choice that was intentionally inaccurate. "But don't party too soon! Not only do we lack cake, but the enemy is not yet vanquished!"

Grey Dragon looked around. All of the other shadow dragons had fallen to the ground, seemingly dead. What Time Wizard had said before was right. Kill the leader, and the rest have no brain.

"I regret to inform you that I do not comprehend what you say. The enemy is not gone? It appears that we have won."

"You're muscles are big, but your brain is still small! I think I did the polymerlyzation spell wrong," the wizard flew down infront of Grey Dragon's mouth, inspecting him closely. He received no reaction, "Kly was not the true enemy, but rather a simple pawn. The next trial for you two will be even harder than what has happened here."

"Ah. Exodia," the big dragon said, now understanding.

"Precisely! Good, you're catching on!"

"Where do I find him?" Grey Dragon asked calmly.

"With Red-Eye's heart. It's like a compass. It'll point this way," Time Wizard pointed with his staff to the north, "or this way," to the east, "Or this way, or this way, this way, thiswaythiswaythisway!" The machine began to spin around in a hyper blur of colors, pointing in dozens of directions. He stopped when his creation growled deeply at him.

"Very well. I can't leave this place the way it is, though, and I must rest as well. I must check on The White One," Grey Dragon explained, mostly to himself. Then he looked to his new ally, "Is this fusion permanent?"

"Nope! It's just like frozen water - it'll melt eventually. Which is sad, really, because I enjoy eating ice more than drinking water," the wizard explained cheerfully, spinning in circles.

"When will we seperate?" He asked, seemingly not annoyed by the wizard's apparent attempts to do so.

"I don't know! I've never done that before! Not only will you two seperate, but you'll also lose your age, and become young like you were before I used my magic on you," Time Wizard squeaked.

Grey Dragon nodded, having heard all he needed to hear, and slowly flew down to the mangled mansion. He landed on the main tower, passing through the enchantment of a roof since he was not an enemy. He looked down to The White One, who was staring in awe at his fused sons.

"You are who I think you are?" The White One asked.

"If you think I am your sons, yes. I am," Grey Dragon nodded.

The leader of the whites chuckled, "You did not fail, son. Or sons, whichever you prefer. You made me proud."

The larger dragon lowered his head to be at The White One's level, his eyes closed, "Thank you. Fighting for you and the people of this mansion was the ultimate honor any living thing could have asked for."

To show his appriciation, The White One licked his fused sons' cheek, closing his eyes when he does so.

When he opened his eyes again, he laughed at the sight. Red-Eyes and Blue-Eyes were unfused, and Red was balanced upside-down on Blue's head. He lost his balance, though, and they both fell to their sides, blinking in confusion.

Red scrambled to his feet, "That was the coolest thing ever!"

Blue hopped up and down, "Yeah! We saved the mansion, woooot! Can we do it again, huh? Huh huh huh, can we, can we?" He asked his father.

"I'm afraid you'll probably have to. This isn't the end of our troubles..." The White One looked seriously down at his children. "Such an enormous attraction of dragons can only mean one thing. Exodia is awake."

Blue-Eyes looked to the ground in thought, "So that's what Kly meant when he said we had already lost."

The White One nodded, "Yes..." he cleared his throat, "It's been a long, hard day for everyone. Let's sleep, and you two may stay with me."

Red-Eyes and Blue-Eyes instantly nuzzled againts their father's stomach, almost falling asleep quickly from the comforting warmth. Almost, because of one thing.

Time Wizard flew through the tower window, "Tomorrow is a day of rebuilding bridges! Big day! You need an alarm clock! Ticktockticktock-**DINGDINGDINGDING!**"

The White One groaned, even he sometimes annoyed by his adviser, "My wizard, I thank you for your assistance, but really, we're tired and need rest. I ask you to leave us."

Before he could even blink, the machine was jumping from celing to floor in the tower staircase, going back down to his clock room, "**DINGDINGDINGDING!**"

---

Author's Note: Very long chapter, I know. I'm proud of it. I loved writing Time Wizard's personality. It wasn't how I planned him to be, but it's what came out of my fingers when typing, and I feel that it's perfect. It's like Yoda and lots of coffee. I hope you all look forward to the future chapters. But about that, I'm considering cutting this story short, as in ending it in another chapter or two, because I feel a bit uninspired. Is there anyone out there who's actually reading this story, and wants me to have it longer?


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